Back to reality
by Rachel4
Summary: Ending of "A Dream". M&R little adventure.


BACK TO REALITY   
  
Declaimer: I do not owe any of the characters, maybe except cats.  
Author's note: This story takes place after "A DREAM"  
Warning: My grammar and spelling may be terrible so don't be afraid.  
Please R&R  
  
Marguerite was walking along the jungle behind the tall man. In the morning Challenger sent them both to Zanga village for something that he needed. He wrote the names of plants on sheet of paper and gave it to Roxton.   
Marguerite read them too, but the titles didn't tell her anything.   
The day was colder than usually so Marguerite felt comfortable holding Roxton's arm. She felt so wonderful warmness. When he was with her she felt that she walking on the clouds.   
Roxton looked at her from time to time over his shoulder to see her smiling at him. He still couldn't believe that they were together all the time. He always knew Marguerite's real soul, but it was really great when she opened it her personally to him.  
Marguerite caught her on the thought that she could walk like that for an eternity. They touched each other, smiled to each other and there was no need for words that could spoil everything.   
Since that night when she told Roxton about her dream she had never seen it again. She even forgot about it because of happiness that came to her life.   
It was so wonderful to wake up at night in the circle of his arms and realize that there was a person in the world, who loved her, cared about her and made all to make her happy.   
"Why couldn't we stay at home today?" Marguerite complained.  
"You didn't like our little journey?" He wondered.  
"It's too cold for the journey." She squeezed his arm.   
Roxton stopped and pulled her closer to himself.  
"Want to try body heat?" He asked her when she slipped her arms around his waist.   
"Sounds nice." She smiled slyly and looked at his lovely face.  
Suddenly she felt his muscles strained themselves. Roxton looked around without letting her go. Marguerite saw a worry on his face.  
"John, what is it?"  
"Well, sweet, I have bad new for you."  
Marguerite sighed deeply refraining from dropping her head on his shoulder. She felt so safe in his arms that it was difficult to suppose that something can be wrong that moment.   
"What?"  
"We have a company." He whispered. "Stay still and don't move. One of them is looking at us from behind the bushes."  
"One of whom?" She moaned trying not to collapse. Fortunately, his arms held her tight and she felt his heart beating too fast than it should do.   
"Headhunters, I guess." He felt her scare and was going to kill everybody who made her feel uncomfortable. "They changed boarding."  
"What do they need from us?" Ask she the most stupid question.  
"I think they liked your wonderful hair and wanted to add them to their collection." He joked.   
"What now?" Her voice was trembling.   
"We must get out of here. As soon as possible."  
They ran for several of miles without a break. Finally when Marguerite felt that she could hardly stay on her feet she stopped and leant against the tree.   
"You can run a couple of miles more," she tried to breath normally, "but I won't move."  
Roxton leant against the same tree but on other side. He also breathed with an effort. He had a feeling that his lungs were burning. But they were safe. Not for a long time but...  
"No one asks you to run further." He noticed.   
Marguerite took off her hat and fanned herself with it. How could she think that the day was cold? Now she thought that it was the hottest she ever had.   
"Where are they?" She asked, sitting on the rock.  
"Have no idea. We are out of their territory. They won't chase us here. I hope."  
"Ok," she nodded. "And where are we?"  
Roxton looked around. It was more difficult question. He couldn't say where they were because they never were in this place before. They never went so far to the north.  
The sun disappeared behind thick clouds and so they couldn't define their location by the sun.   
"Don't say we're lost." She pleaded.  
"I'm sorry, sweet, but..." He sat next to her, took both her hands in his and looked into his eyes. "It's Ok. I promise you that everything is fine. Until you're with me, everything is fine."  
She smiled and nodded. And then leant forward and toughed his lips with slight kiss.   
"I know."  
Roxton hugged her for a moment just to know that she was real but not the dream that followed him for more than two years.  
"Listen, Marguerite," he began, "we need to find the way out. And now we must to separate. You'll go to the north, and I'll go to the west. In ten minutes we meet here. Check your weapon."  
She took her pistol from the hostel and made sure that all the bullets were on their places.   
"Okay," she nodded. "Here in ten minutes."  
She went to the north as he said.   
"John," she called him as she reached the edge of the little field. "Be careful."  
"You too." He kissed his hand for her.  
Jungles were calm. Marguerite walked through it trying to hear every rustle. But even birds kept silent. 'It's too cold', she concluded. She wasn't sure that this little trip would solve the problem. They were lost, and she'd better prefer to stay with John to be sure that he was okay.   
The house appeared so suddenly as if it grew up from the ground. It was old and wooden. But some parts of it were darkened by time and wet climate. Of course, there were no glasses in the windows and the door was locked. The house was surrounded by a low fence covered with ivy and small orchids.   
Marguerite looked at her watch. Three minutes left before she and Roxton had to meet at the field.   
"Well, at least I would be sure that I found nothing." Marguerite stepped towards the house and climbed over the fence.  
She pushed the door as hard as she could and in several seconds it opened.   
The house was very old. But in his time it was luxurious. Marguerite found broken mirror in the hall. And in other rooms she saw a lot of furniture covered with the cloths that probably were white in the last century. There was dust and spider-webs everywhere and the floor creaked with each step. Marguerite even was afraid that it could break under her.  
"Oh, wonderful." She muttered. "What did I expect to see? An owner with the hot cup of tea?"  
She turned to leave. Roxton had to be worrying when she didn't come in time. Though he knew that coming in time was not in her style.   
She was too deep in thoughts and that's why she even screamed when she saw a cat sitting at the table. A big and fluffy black cat that looked at her attentively.   
"Hi," Marguerite said with nervous smile. "Where did you come from?"  
As she expected the cat didn't answer.   
"I'm really sorry that I came to your territory." Marguerite passed the cat and went to the door. "So I think you wouldn't mind if I leave, would you?"  
The door in from of her closed with a loud slam. The wind, Marguerite thought though that moment she was ready to run from this place as fast as she could. She even began to regret that she came there.   
She pulled the door, but it didn't open.   
"May be you let me leave, please?" She turned to the cat to see another one next to the first.   
It was black, too, and a bit fatter than the first one.   
At this sight Marguerite blood ran cold. She stood at the door and couldn't move. A nightmare that haunted her several weeks ago came true. She stood and looked directly at the cats that looked at her, too. Like in her dream.  
Then she forced herself to turn her head to see not less than twenty cats sitting in the room. They were on the sofa, on the chairs and on the floor under the table. But they didn't move, just looked at her with their yellow eyes as if they weren't alive.   
"John," she whispered, "where the hell are you?"  
"He won't come," a voice appeared in Marguerite's mind.  
It came from nowhere. She was absolutely sure that the house was empty. And at the same time she knew that she didn't think about it. The voice belonged to someone who didn't need to speak.   
"What do you want?" She asked aloud.   
"You." The voice came again.  
Marguerite tried to calm herself down but it became more and more difficult with each minute of standing in this place.   
"Stupid joke!" Marguerite cried though her voice was trembling. "Let me go!"  
"Never." It was a low whisper this time. "Never!"  
"Damn it!" Marguerite ran to the door and began to knock into it trying to break it.  
As she expected it didn't work. And she ran to the windows, but somehow they were now locked. And through the holes she could see that it was night already.  
"What the hell is going on here?" She mumbled.   
It was early morning when Roxton and she left the treehouse and they separated when it was twenty minutes past midday. But now she saw dark sky and low black clouds in which lightnings appeared from time to time.   
A loud laugh made her turn. Cats were still sitting on their places but now Marguerite could swear that she saw grins at their snouts. As mad as it could sound but she also could swear that the laugh belonged to one of them.  
"Bad day... " she turned her head to see that she was in a trap. And it would be very difficult to get out of it. "May be we could talk and you change your mind?" She said it to the voice.  
A freezing laugh sounded again.  
  
? * ?  
Roxton came to the rock later than he should and expected to see worrying and at the same time furious Marguerite. But the field was empty. He called her loudly several times but achieved nothing except terrifying the birds in the bushes.   
He didn't find anything, just a little pond not far from here, but it didn't tell him where he was.   
"Oh, come on, Marguerite! I was late only on three minutes! It's not funny! You are always late!"  
He expected her to appear from behind the tree. But no one answered him.   
"Oh, devil!" Roxton moaned. "She got in a trouble again. Please, let her be alright!"  
The house on the hill attracted his attention. He was sure on 98 per cent that Marguerite should be there. The tracks of her boots told the same. But as he called here again, he got no answer.   
Roxton approached the house and tried to open the door.   
  
? * ?  
Marguerite looked in the hole of the window and saw him coming.  
"John!" She shouted. "John, please, help me!"  
"Marguerite?" He came to the window. "What...?"  
"John, please get me out of here." Her voice was full of scare.  
"How did you get there?" He pulled the boards on the windows but they were set tight.   
"Through the door. It wasn't locked several minutes ago."  
"Okay, don't panic." He tried to sound calmly. "Look around and say what do you see. May be you have something in the room to break the door."  
Marguerite turned her head but she could see only black cats everywhere. What did they want from her? Her death? If it was true they could enter the fan club of her killers in every county of the world, she thought sarcastically. There were a lot of people who would be glad to lose ten years of their lives just to see her dying.   
Roxton kicked the door. A couple of attempts failed but finally it opened with a great effort.   
Marguerite's blood ran cold as she remembered the end of her nightmare. She rushed across the room to the window. As she expected she saw that the house was standing at the edge of the cliff. And far below she could see waves hitting the shore.  
" Marguerite?" Roxton looked at her with wide-opened eyes - she rushed along the house from connor to connor with mad eyes and seemed not to notice him at all.   
She stooped and looked at him.   
"John," she ran up to him and hang on his neck.   
"What's going on here?"  
The door closed behind them with a loud slam. Marguerite shuddered. She squeezed Roxton's hands and turned to see the cats sitting around them. Alive circle, she thought.   
"My nightmare..." she whispered to Roxton.  
"What?" He frowned.  
"Remember the nightmare that haunted me several weeks ago?" Her voice broke. "It came true. Everything here is like in it " old house, cats, thunderstorm... ocean below."  
Roxton pressed her to him tighter with one arm and took his pistol from the hostel with another. Marguerite sighed deeply and finished her speech:  
"If we don't get out of here soon, we'll die."  
"Marguerite, don't be ridiculous," he shook his head. "What these cats can do with us?"  
"They can do nothing!" Marguerite angrily pulled away from him. "But if we fall from this rock to the ocean we have one little chance for two of us to survive!"  
She was furious because he didn't believe to her and laughed at her, and because she was afraid for him. How couldn't he understand that they could die in several minutes?  
The house trembled with each wind rush.  
"Marguerite, why do you think that it is your nightmare? As I remember you told that everything was happening at night."  
"And what is this?" She pointed to the window covered with boards - through the hole between them they could see dark sky and rare lightnings. And the room was absolutely dark inside.  
"What the hell..." Roxton muttered. "But I wasn't in your dream!"  
"Oh, yes, and boards on windows too!" She exclaimed. "You still didn't believe? Wonderful!"  
"Listen..."  
"No," she interrupted him. "You can have your own point of view. Just get us out of here and think what you want!"  
Roxton released her hand but surrounded by cats she couldn't leave him. So they stood back to back and millions of thoughts were sweeping through their minds.  
"John," Marguerite called him in several minutes.  
"What?"  
"I'm sorry." She said quietly and turned to him. "It is... it would be stupid to spend our time on quarreling."  
She came up closer to him and touched his face with her fingers. Her heart was filled with love to this man who saved her life so many times, who touched her soul and entered her heart the first moment they'd met. She could sink in his eyes and was ready to do it every time he was near.   
Roxton's heart was wrung with pain and love to the woman standing in from of him.  
"Oh, princess," he hugged her tightly and pressed her to his chest.   
Marguerite slipped her hands around his neck and pressed her lips to his. She felt a wind rush and then bright light around but didn't break the kiss.   
They heard a loud scream and floor going away under their feet. Then everything became silent.  
"I love you," she whispered.   
"I love you, too, sweetheart." He pulled away a bit to look into her eyes.   
Then suddenly he turned his head to see that they were no longer standing in the room. They were on the little field near the crystal pond.  
Marguerite followed is gaze and then laughed.  
He looked at her amazingly.   
"Is it funny?" He lifted his eyebrows at her.  
"I just understood what had happened." She looked at him with a sly grin.  
"A miracle?" He prompted.  
"My miracle," she teased him. "What would you do without me?"  
"Probably, I would live without problems," he guessed.  
"John!"  
"But it wouldn't be so interesting. So what did you understand?"  
She waited for several moments playing with the flaps of his hat and ribbon on it.  
"My nightmare just finished." Finally she shrugged her shoulders.  
"Marguerite, not everybody is so smart. Please, explain it with normal words."   
She laughed.  
"When I had a nightmare it always finished in this place. I mean I woke up in this place. So when the house began to fall from the rock into the sea we came from illusion to reality. As I said it was just my nightmare. Actually, I think this place made my biggest scare come true."  
Roxton shook his head. He needed to isolate his Marguerite from Challenger and Summerlee's crazy theories. They spoiled her usual interpretation of the world.   
"Come on, miss Krux, let's go home," he pulled her to the west where the treehouse was seen. "I need to talk to you seriously about reading since fiction and Challenger and Malone's notes. By the way, does Challenger know about it?"  
"What do you think?" She whispered to his ear. "But I hope you won't deliver me up to them, will you?"  
"Not now, but it is a perfect cause for blackmailing you."  
"John!" She turned to see his eyes. "I love you..."  
  
  
  
TO BE CONTINUED... MAY BE 


End file.
